ICJ ruling in Ndombasi case “purely procedural”

Friday’s ruling, in which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected the DRC’s request that “provisional measures” be invoked in a court case in which the DRC was seeking to quash an international arrest warrant issued by Belgium against former DRC Foreign Minister Yerodia Abdoulaye Ndombasi, was “purely procedural” and did not prejudge the question of the Court’s jurisdiction to deal with the merits or substance of the case, according to a UN statement.

The court recalled that provisional measures, intended to preserve the rights of respective parties pending the decision of the court, were not justified because they required urgency, and Ndombasi had ceased to be foreign minister following a cabinet reshuffle on 20 November, when he was appointed education minister. The ICJ concluded that inasmuch as Ndombasi’s new functions involved less frequent travel, “no irreparable injustice would be caused in the immediate future to the Congo’s rights”. The ICJ also unanimously rejected Belgium’s request that the Congo’s application should be removed from the list. It ruled that the arrest warrant still related to Ndombasi, notwithstanding his new ministerial duties, and that the Congo’s application had therefore “not been deprived of its object” as Belgium contended.